IRS cast an even wider net for conservative groups than previously revealed

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the IRS inspector general's report due out this week will reveal that far more conservative groups were targeted for audits than those already known.
The Internal Revenue Service's scrutiny of conservative groups went beyond those with "tea party" or "patriot" in their names--as the agency admitted Friday--to also include ones worried about government spending, debt or taxes, and even ones that lobbied to "make America a better place to live," according to new details of a government probe.
The investigation also revealed that a high-ranking IRS official knew as early as mid-2011 that conservative groups were being inappropriately targeted--nearly a year before then-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told a congressional committee the agency wasn't targeting conservative groups.
The new disclosures are likely to inflame a widening controversy over IRS handling of dozens of applications by tea-party, patriot and other conservative...(Read Full Post)